Communication with the purpose of culturally promoting artists included in the Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Collection, works protected by intellectual property rights. Their total or partial reproduction or processing by any means, or their transmission or cession in any form is forbidden without the authorisation of the holder of the rights to the works.
PANEL CON DOS ESTUDIOS DE MOSQUETEROS Y UN AUTORRETRATO
TECHNICAL DATA
Author: Ignacio León y Escosura (Oviedo, 1834 – Toledo, 1901)
Title: Panel con dos estudios de mosqueteros y un autorretrato (Panel with two studies of musketeers and a self-portrait)
Year: circa 1877 and 1882
Technique: oil on panel
Size: 23,5 x 14 cm (side panels) and 12,5 x 9 (central panel)
This panel, consisting of three panels that the painter gave to the American art dealer Samuel Putnam Avery and his wife, Mary Ann Ogden, is presented as mounted by the collector and recently restored. It brings together two studies of musketeers, made circa 1877 or shortly before, for the two figures on the far right of the composition of his celebrated painting The Enemy’s Flag (private collection).
The first soldier, who is clapping his hands, is standing on a wooden bench in the painting. He is armed with a sword and his attire is represented with extraordinary precision. The other character closes the composition on the right and hence his posture: unbowed, with his hat in his left hand and his right arm extended towards the place where the enemy flag is unfurled. It shows a great exaltation, which the artist’s energetic and unrestrained execution brings out. Between the two is a loosely executed and precisely illuminated self-portrait, painted in 1882.
Auctioned at Ansorena on November 4, 2020 (lot 156), it was acquired by the María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation.